BLM skills, rotation questions

Hi all :)

1. question about Flare - HOW (!) am i supposed to use it properly?
I mean i click that pretty button and mana is 0. Only think anyone can do after that is convert to Umbral 1 by pressing Transpose. If transpose for some reason is on 10s cd than drink cofee for 10s until it comes back.

This cant be how they meant this thing to work? :confused:

Flare is used in aoe rotation. Use fire2 until you're almost out of mp, then finish up with flare. Transpose to get mp back. After that fire3 to get back into astral fire for more dmg and repeat until stuff is dead.

Thanks :) Now i understand how Flare works in fight.

Question 2:
Is it optimal to use ice skills after i have pressed transpose? I kinda like shooting ice stuff too. Really like winter and fire skills.

In general you want to keep your ice phase as short as possible. During umbral ice you're mp regenerate, but your damage output is significantly reduced. Ideally you don't want to spend more time in ice than it takes your mp bar to fill back up.

Flare eats all your MP for a hard hitting AoE, but you dont need to be at full mana to use it. As low as roughly 10% is still enough fuel to start that particular fire. So flare at your level is mostly used to end an aoe cycle. You cast fire 2s until you have just enough mana to flare, then big boom flare, and transpose to get mana back. Using the Fire 2s means youve always killed enough time to get transpose back. It looks roughly like this.

Fire 3(full stacks!) Fire 2 F2 F2 Flare Transpose (as soon as you get your first mana tick)Thunder 2 F3 F2 F2 Flare Transpose Tick etc

You can also toss in a convert followed by a 2nd flare, and possibly a strong enough ether followed by a third - though both of those are on longish cooldowns and so arent usable every cycle. There are also a few points in the leveling curve where flare works as a final spell for your fire phase in single target, but usually getting a Bliz3 to fast regen ends up being more valuable for single target. The concept on the aoe rotation is that you always want to be casting a spell to hurt as many people as possible. The only time you stop casting is if you have to move, or while you wait the 0-3 seconds for the server to give you mana back after you transpose. Waiting for full mana isnt worth it(it only gets you one extra fire 2 and delays your next flare 10ish seconds per cycle, and that flare hits harder then three fire2s), so you want to keep pushing.

Yea, sounds like 1x cast of Blizzard III and than return to dps world with Fire III.
So for single big bro i continue with multiple Fire III and for lots of smaller bros i use lots of Fire II, right? Ofc in middle of all of this i slap enemy with thunder 2 or 3 (depending on enemy number)?
Not fan of Fire III cast time thought... Uses lots of mp, casts for 3,5s.
For content of lvl 56 and up Enochian comes in with Fire IV.
My memory generates few situations where i fail to keep fire stance up...
Or perhaps i should cast Fire 1, Fire 1...... until i crit and get Fire III for free?

Ofc while i'm mooving i press Scathe button.

Thanks for answers.
In last post where i mentioned Fire 1 that was meant as single target rotation. I feel like throwing rocks when i cast multiple Fire III on boss.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KilimYolo

Is it optimal to use ice skills after i have pressed transpose?

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On single mobs:

Once you've learned Blizzard III, you want to avoid transposing as much as possible. On single targets, I would only use Flare if Swiftcast and Convert are both available (Swiftcast → Flare → Convert → Fire → Blizzard III)



On groups:
Do Frizze's rotation.

(after Flare,Transpose) → Thunder II/IV → Fire III → Fire II → Fire II → Flare → Transpose

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KilimYolo

Not fan of Fire III cast time thought... Uses lots of mp, casts for 3,5s.

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Prior to Fire IV, you should spam Fire. Fire III is for breaking Umbral Ice. Once in Astral Fire III, casting Fire III takes 40% longer than casting Fire, but Fire III only does 33% more damage.

When you have a Firestarter proc, Fire III's time commitment is equal to Fire, so it takes 0% longer but does 33% more damage.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KilimYolo

Yea, sounds like 1x cast of Blizzard III and than return to dps world with Fire III.
So for single big bro i continue with multiple Fire III and for lots of smaller bros i use lots of Fire II, right? Ofc in middle of all of this i slap enemy with thunder 2 or 3 (depending on enemy number)?
Not fan of Fire III cast time thought... Uses lots of mp, casts for 3,5s.
For content of lvl 56 and up Enochian comes in with Fire IV.
My memory generates few situations where i fail to keep fire stance up...
Or perhaps i should cast Fire 1, Fire 1...... until i crit and get Fire III for free?

Ofc while i'm mooving i press Scathe button.

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On the first part, you don't need the Blizzard III cast for your AoE rotation. It might feel sluggish, casting Fire III as soon as you can (since Transpose only gave you one stack of Ice), but it is still ideal. As described, the long cast time gets you enough MP to keep rolling out the Fire IIs, and it saves you time vs trying to cast Blizzard III (which would be equally long) before the Fire III. For these situations, it's good to remember you don't need to get back to full MP every time, you're just waiting for enough to kick back into burn mode.

As for Fire III points, you're getting the right idea. Fire III is not your spam spell. Costs too much, takes too long to cast. For single targets, you just want to start with Fire III (for full Fire stacks), and then Fire 1 to burn it down. The free Fire IIIs should typically be worked in whenever they're up, yes (at least, I'm not aware of any reason to hold them back). When you're low on MP, Blizzard III is quick to cast when you've got full Fire stacks, which swaps them to Ice, and you've usually got time for one filler spell (typically Thunder) before you go back to Fire III (again, quick cast with Ice stacks) and start over.

Can't provide any advice on Eno, though. Not up to post-50 yet myself. But the basics are always good to master.

THANK YOU guys/girls. :) :) :)

I new i was doing something/everything wrong lol. :D
This all feels logical and easy to learn. Plus i actually LOVE Flare visuals/sound, so that will make it even easier to learn... :D

Im just starting down the BLM route and after reading this thread i can quite clearly see i was doing pretty much everything wrong! I spent all my MP on Fire 3 and pretty much had nothing else other than a few Blizzards while MP was regen after Transpose. I didnt even have Fire 1 or 2 on my Hotbar, just presumed 3 is better because it does more damage, but i was getting so frustrated at the very long cast time!

Most of the fight i was waiting for MP, i was so very wrong!

So thanks for all the information :)

M

Coming from the single player FF games, its a natural way to think. You usually have a ton of ethers to get your mana back, and can spam your highest level spells in any important fight. In this game(for BLM at least) they changed the parameters of the spells in such a way that they have different ideal uses. Once youve wrapped your head around it you realize that theyve given you tools for more situations, just with a naming scheme that might leave something to be desired.

You might want to take a look at this thread: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...A-Guide-to-DPS
It's not quite up to date yet, I don't see the 4.0 skills when quickly looking through it, but it's still gonna give you a general idea of rotations and skills. For the more advanced stuff, read the newest comments, where they are discussing about 4.0 rotation.

This https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...l_70_rotation/ is a discussion about Stormblood rotations, I didn't have time to read through it all yet, so if it's not helpful I apologise.

Also, as I am a career Blm since beta and always happy to discuss Blm stuff, feel free to get in contact (ingame: Rhia Nara, Cactuar server or on the Forums, don't actually know if this has a PM function?) and I can give you more detailed advice on skills, rotation or specific fights.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mortern

Im just starting down the BLM route and after reading this thread i can quite clearly see i was doing pretty much everything wrong! I spent all my MP on Fire 3 and pretty much had nothing else other than a few Blizzards while MP was regen after Transpose. I didnt even have Fire 1 or 2 on my Hotbar, just presumed 3 is better because it does more damage, but i was getting so frustrated at the very long cast time!

Most of the fight i was waiting for MP, i was so very wrong!

So thanks for all the information :)

M

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Yes, as you've discovered, in this game no spell or ability really becomes obsolete as you level up, they all still have their functions. And the ones that are just straight upgrades now get automatically replaced by the higher level versions so you don't even need to worry about that. Good luck with your BLM career! May you blow up many enemies to come. :D